Buford Pusser
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Buford Hayse Pusser (December 12, 1937 - August 21, 1974) was the Sheriff of McNairy County, Tennessee (in West Tennessee) from 1964 to 1970. Pusser is known for his virtual one-man war on moonshining, gambling and other vices on the Mississippi-Tennessee border. His story has directly inspired several books and movies, and at least one TV series.
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[edit] Career
Buford joined the Marines when he was eighteen, but his military career was cut short during basic training when it was discovered he had asthma. He thereafter moved to Chicago in 1957, working at Union Bag Co., and working as a wrestler. While there, he met and married his wife Pauline (Dec. 5, 1959). Pusser later returned to his home state in 1962, moving with his wife to Adamsville, Tennessee.
Pusser served as the Adamsville, Tennessee police chief and constable from 1962 to 1964. He then ran for McNairy County, Tennessee sheriff in 1964, and won. Thus, at the age of 26, Pusser became the youngest sheriff in the history of the state of Tennessee.
At that time, the Dixie Mafia was led by Jack Hathcock who ran The Forty-Five Grill, a restaurant and dance hall near Corinth, Mississippi, just inside the Mississippi state line. The restaurant had opened in 1950, doubling as a gambling whorehouse with a reputation for violence towards any patrons who complained about crooked games. The restaurant was also the focal point for organized crime that included bootlegging. Jack was killed by Carl Douglas "Towhead" White (the infamous leader of the State Line Mob), who successfully claimed self defense. Jack's wife, Louise Hathcock would soon become (or perhaps already was) White's mistress.
On February 1st, 1966, Pusser attempted to arrest Louise Hathcock for robbery; when she opened fire on him, he fired back and killed her.
Already a local hero, Pusser's "war" on the "State Line Mob" was brought to national prominence when his wife, Pauline, was killed on August 12, 1967 in an assassination attempt meant for him (ordered by Carl Douglas "Towhead" White, see below). On April 5th, 1969, White was killed by Berry "Junior" Smith, who also claimed it was in self defense. Pusser named Kirksy McCord Nix Jr. as the contractor of his wife's killers, but Nix Jr. was never charged.
In 1970, Pusser relinquished his role as sheriff due to a law limiting the number of terms a sheriff could serve at that time. Pusser was defeated in his attempt at reelection to sheriff in 1972. There was controversy regarding the film developing in the county and Pusser blamed that controversy for his defeat by incumbent Sheriff Clifford Coleman. Pusser was later elected again as constable by a majority of voters who wrote his name on their ballots. He served in that position for 2 more years.
Pusser died August 21, 1974 from wounds sustained in an automobile crash in which his car hit an embankment and he was ejected from the vehicle. While the crash was ruled to be accidental, there has been ongoing speculation that, in light of the apparent speed of travel, foul play may have been involved in the incident (Buford's mother Helen (1908-1987) and his daughter Dwana (1961-) believed he was murdered).
[edit] Assassination of Pauline Pusser
On the pre-dawn morning of August 12, 1967, Pusser's phone rang, informing him of a disturbance call on New Hope Road in McNairy County. He responded, with his wife Pauline joining him for this particular ride. Shortly after they passed the New Hope Methodist Church on New Hope Road, two cars came alongside Pusser's; the occupants opened fire, killing his wife and leaving Pusser, who had suffered a shotgun wound to the face, for dead. He spent eighteen days in the hospital before returning home, and would need several surgeries to restore his appearance.
Pusser vowed to bring all involved with his wife's death to justice. He identified four assassins: Louise Hathcock's former boyfriend Carl Douglas "Towhead" White, George McGann, Gary McDaniel, and Kirksey Nix.
In April 1969, the mastermind who paid for the hit, Carl Douglas "Towhead" White was gunned down in front of the El Ray Motel on U.S. Highway 45 in Corinth, Mississippi. The alleged triggerman was a small-time hood named Berry Smith. (Author W.R. Morris wrote in 1990 that Pusser himself had hired a hit man who killed White with one shotgun blast to the head.)
In late 1970, both McDaniel and McGann were found shot to death in Texas. According to Edward Humes in "Mississippi Mud," Pusser was suspected by some law enforcement officials of having killed both.
Pusser never brought Kirksey Nix to justice. Nix was sentenced to Angola State Prison in Louisiana for the Easter Saturday, 1971 murder of a New Orleans grocer, Frank J. Corso. Nix was later involved in the 1987 murder-for-hire killing of Judge Vincent Sherry and his wife Margaret, in Biloxi, Mississippi. His co-conspirator, Biloxi Mayor Pete Halat, had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from Nix and blamed it on his law partner, Vincent Sherry. Nix ordered a hit from prison and was later sentenced to isolation for the rest of his life. Nix has repeatedly refused to comment about Pusser's claims that he was one of his wife's killers.
The other assassin, Carmine Raymond Gagliardi, was found floating in Boston Harbor, his body riddled with bullets (see Morris: 1990).
[edit] Pop culture
Pusser was the subject of three biographical books written by W.R. Morris: The Twelfth Of August: The Story of Buford Pusser (1971), Buford: True Story of "Walking Tall" Sheriff Buford Pusser (1984) and The State Line Mob: A True Story of Murder and Intrigue (2001). In addition, Morris also created a pictorial history book of Buford called The Legacy of Buford Pusser: A Pictorial History of the "Walking Tall" Sheriff (1997)
The 1973 movie Walking Tall was dedicated to Pusser. Based on Pusser's true story, it was a combination of loosely based fact and Hollywood revisionism. This has since become a well known cult classic (with two direct sequels of its own, a TV movie, "A Real American Hero," and a brief TV series, also called Walking Tall).
A remake by the same name was released in 2004 as a somewhat less realistic and more mainstream film. Also dedicated to Pusser, the remake stars The Rock and again takes liberties with the story, giving the action a more modern setting and premise. Interestingly, like Pusser, The Rock has had a background in professional wrestling.
Drive-By Truckers wrote songs about the events surrounding Pusser's wife's death and his colorful tenure as sheriff. Most notably, The Dirty South contained three consecutive songs, "The Boys from Alabama", "Cottonseed" and "The Buford Stick", that purported to tell "the other side of that story".
[edit] Controversy
In contrast to the public image that fostered the legend and the many who, to this day, praise his efforts to clean up McNairy County, there are some who claim that he was himself corrupt and involved in much of the vice that took place at the State Line establishments. They contend the violence was the result of conflicts between the corrupt sheriff and the criminal element that thrived in the area. This is, however, vigorously disputed by most who knew him.[citation needed]
[edit] Trivia and other information
- Pusser's predecessor as sheriff, James Dickey, died in a car accident about two weeks before the 1964 election.
- During his tenure as Sheriff, Pusser was shot eight times and stabbed seven.
- The Buford Pusser Museum has been established at the house where he was living at the time of his death in 1974.
- Each May, there is a Buford Pusser Festival in his hometown of Adamsville, Tennessee.
- George McGann, one of Pauline Pusser's murderers, was the husband of Beverly Oliver who in 1970 claimed that she was the famously mysterious Babushka Lady who appears with her own movie camera in the Zapruder film of the actual Kennedy Assassination.
- Parents: Carl Pusser, was the Police Chief of Adamsville, Tennessee, and Helen Pusser.
[edit] See also
- Walking Tall (movies)
